


Pretend that you're alone

by hazelandglasz



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Chance Meetings, F/M, Fluff, M/M, New York City
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-04-09 07:23:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4339229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazelandglasz/pseuds/hazelandglasz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s not easy to live with your best friend, and Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss) knows that too well. Since Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) moved into his tiny apartment he can’t get a moment for himself from the parties and friends coming into their lives. And when Quinn finally finds herself a boyfriend, Blaine needs to get out at the most inconvenient of times.</p><p>That’s how he finds himself on the fire escape, where he can pretend that he’s alone, just for a minute, while he listens and watches how life goes in the homes surrounding him. That how he gets to know Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) - even if only from the distance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pretend that you're alone

**Author's Note:**

> Angie (gleeddicted.tumblr.com) gave us this beautiful poster, and I couldn't resist ^^

* * *

 

Blaine and Quinn have been like brother and sister from the moment they met.

It was in junior High, they were both the new kids at school, and their eyes met over the pamphlets distributed by the councellor and smiled at each other.

And that was that, not looking back on that relationship–their mothers would have loved for them to be more than friends, sure, but they are fine with the way things turned out.

Graduating from High school had been tough for the both of them, what with Blaine going to New York and Quinn going to Boston, but they made it work, the first couple of months, traveling to each other’s elected hometown whenever they could.

And then …  _Life_  happened, and even though they are still best friends, distance has made their friendships a more virtual one, built on Skype conversations and old fashioned letters that make the two of them laugh, not matter what happened in the day.

Which is why it comes as a surprise for Blaine to come home one evening and find Quinn sitting on the stairs of his building with a suitcase at her feet.

“Hey little Warbler.”

“Hey Luce,” he replies, sitting down next to her. “What are you doing here?”

Blaine can see the way her lower lip tremble, and the slight shiver in her hands. “I need some time away from Boston,” she replies, voice steady.

Steady-ish.

“I do have a very comfy and lonely couch,” Blaine says, bumping their shoulders.

“I won’t be in your hair for too long,” she exclaims, pulling him into a hug.

“Don’t worry about it,” he replies, patting her back and kissing her cheek. “Don’t worry about it at all–just focus on you.”

Three months later, Blaine wants to go back in time, find his past self, slap him silly and above anything else, shut. Him. Up.

The first two weeks, it really looked like Quinn was in dire need of some rest from whatever happened in Boston.

And then she made friends–accidentally, with some of Blaine’s neighbours and own friends–and started … socializing.

First, it was only dinners, and even though Blaine could have done without some of them, wishing for some peace and quiet after a long day of studying and working, he let himself enjoyed them.

But then it turned into parties–loud parties, filled with music that lacks harmony and alcohol that Blaine couldn’t appreciate.

God, he  _yearns_  for the emptiness and loneliness of his little apartment.

He tries talking to Quinn, to hint as gently as possible to her possible return to Boston or at least to her move to another place, but she has a 6th sense for that.

Every time Blaine gathers the courage to talk to her, she is as sweet as a kitten, thanking him and apologizing and turning on the waterworks.

Blaine is a sucker for Quinn’s teary smile and she knows it.

Blaine is a fairly patient guy, so he endures it, accepts the parties and when he needs to hide from all that parasite noise, he rushes to the fire escape and lets the city sounds drown the thump of the music inside.

There is something truly more musical in the nightlife that buzzes around him than the “music” playing inside.

And that’s how he discovers Kurt Hummel.

See, Kurt Hummel lives in the building on the other side of the street and he is beautiful.

He’s gorgeous, and funny, if Blaine can trust what he sees through his window.

“And the Tony for Best Performance by an actor in a lead role in a musical, and for Best costumes go to … Kuuuurt Hummel!” is what Blaine can hear from the opened window, until the man himself appears in the window, holding a golden bottle of Coke to his chest. “Thank you, thank you very much, I have … I am so surprised, I didn’t even prepare a speech!”

Blaine can’t help but laugh, and the sound bounces of the metal stairs, up to Kurt’s window.

“Glad my dreams amuse you”, Kurt calls through the window and Blaine gives him a standing ovation as an apology.

Kurt curtseys and it only makes Blaine laugh more. “You’re an easy audience,” Kurt says with a smile and Blaine smiles back at him.

“Or you’re a very talented actor,” he calls back, and even though the lighting is not that great, Blaine can see that Kurt is blushing.

“You can’t know that”, he replies, and Blaine shrugs, wincing when a particularly loud shout comes from his apartment.

“Not the party kind?” Kurt asks, leaning on the windowsill as he opens the bottle of Coke.

“Not that kind of party,” Blaine replies, sipping on his own drink.

“Sorry ‘bout that.”

“Appreciated.”

Silence–or as much silence can be heard in New York at any given time–stretches between them, but somehow, Blaine feels more comfortable here than inside.

“What’s your name?” Kurt calls and Blaine smiles at him.

“I’m Blaine.”

“Well, exiled Blaine, I wish you good luck.”

This time, Blaine is the one who bows to Kurt. “Thank you, future Tony award winner Kurt Hummel.”

Kurt’s laugh rings in the street even after he closes his window.

—

If Blaine thought that is was bad to deal with the parties, it worsens when _Warren_  comes into their lives.

For one, the man is an insufferable jerk, who knows that he’s pretty and plays on it.

For two, he invades Blaine’s space–physically and metaphorically–on a practically daily basis.

For three, he lets out a couple of low-key homophobic jokes that Quinn apologizes for.

Fucking Warren.

Blaine is starting to consider arranging a room for himself on the fire escape–he’s pretty sure he could hang a hammock between the bars, and he could lay his books and coffee cups on the windowsills.

Or he could kick Quinn and Warren out of his apartment.

But he has unfortunately been raised a gentleman, so … he endures.

There is a faint hope that keeps him silent, the hope that at some point, Quinn will either dump Warren or move in with him.

As her best friend, he knows which option he’d pick, but it’s not his decision to make.

“Exiled again?”

Blaine looks up from his book and through his plastic umbrella.

“Good afternoon, Kurt,” he calls and Kurt waves at him, tightening his cardigan around his shoulders.

“Doesn’t look like the best circumstances to invade the fire escape!”

“Not much of a choice,” he calls back, past caring if Kurt can hear him. “My … friend brought an unexpected guest, and I’d rather not witness any of what is going on right now.”

“Yikes.”

“Precisely.”

“Well, good luck Blaine,” Kurt calls before closing his window.

Blaine starts returning to his book before closing it, unable to focus.

The sound of the rain falling on the metallic stairs and the pavement mutes any other sound coming from the city, and for a moment–one that Blaine stretches for as long as he can–Blaine can let himself believe that he’s alone in the metropolis.

But like a magnet, his eyes return to the faint glow coming for Kurt’s window, and Blaine smiles a small grin at the thought that perhaps, it’s good thing that he’s not completely alone.

—

As Winter turns into Spring, Quinn breaks up with Warren and apologizes for making Blaine feel like he was not allowed in his own apartment.

Blaine hugs her, helps her move across the hallway and spends the following two weeks raiding her fridge at random moments as payback.

If anything, it makes her laugh and buy his favorite snacks.

It’s good to be back in his apartment, to reclaim the ownership of his couch, and to be able to walk in his towel–or not–whenever he feels like it.

But.

Blaine kind of misses the break provided by the fire escape.

As odd as it may be, he finds that he cannot get the state of mind that he had sitting on the metallic steps back inside.

He has peace, he has quiet, but his regular stays on the fire escape have given him a craving for the energy that pulses in the streets of New York at all times, a buzzing that seems to have fueled his inspiration and that he now needs.

And, a small voice in his brain whispers, he misses seeing Kurt as regularly as he used to.

Taking a mug of coffee, Blaine goes to the fire escape in the early morning, taking a deep breath and smiling at the honks coming for a street nearby that welcome him.

“Hey!”

Blaine shakes his head, stepping out of his bubble to join the rest of the world, and he looks across the street, toward the voice that called him so enthusiastically.

“Good morning Kurt,” he calls back, lifting his mug in salute, and laughing to himself when Kurt lifts a slice of bread and butter in reply.

“A bit early to be exiled, isn’t it?” Kurt asks, munching on his piece of bread and Blaine shakes his head.

“Not exiled this time–I’m here because I want it.”

“Why on Earth would you decide to take your breakfast on the fire escape?” Kurt asks, puzzled.

“It gives me the illusion that I’m alone,” Blaine replies with a shrug, and Kurt nods.

“Maybe I should give it a try too,” he says, and Blaine jokingly pats the step next to him, exaggeratedly widening his move as Kurt starts laughing.

Something warm spreads in Blaine’s belly at the sight of Kurt turning his head into his shoulder to smother his laughter.

“I don’t climb anybody’s fire escape, mister,” Kurt says as he calms down, and maybe it’s his new claim on his apartment, maybe it’s New York, maybe it’s the sparkle in Kurt’s eyes as sunlight fills the street between them, but Blaine has an impulse he can’t keep in.

“Go on a date with me first then,” he hears himself calling, and even though he blushes, Blaine wouldn’t take it back for anything in the world.

Kurt opens and closes his mouth before leaning on the windowsill to squint at him.

“For real?”

“For real.”

Kurt twists his mouth and for a moment, Blaine feels like he has overstepped the line–a line between what and what, he doesn’t know for sure.

And then Kurt’s lips stretch into a smile.

“Junior’s, in about 10? I have a craving for a good pie.”

“Works for me.”

—

**_Epilogue_ **

Blaine steps on the fire escape and leans his whole body weight against the stairs.

The subway makes the whole structure shiver, and Blaine lets it travel through him.

There it is again, that sensation that he’s alone in the world.

“Hey.”

Blaine turns his head towards the window he just used to come out. “Hey.”

Kurt follows him, sitting on the windowsill with two mugs in his hands. “May I interrupt your moment of solitude?”

Blaine leans into Kurt’s space to press a soft kiss to his lips. “You have an open invitation to my fortress, and you know that,” he says against his lips, rubbing their noses before picking up his mug with a smirk, “Mr. Hummel-Anderson.”

Clouds disappear and both their rings shine in the sunlight, casting auras over the stairs.

“How nice of you to share your pocket of peace,” Kurt replies with a smile.

“Now that I have you,” Blaine says, reaching for Kurt’s hand to make him stand up in front of him, “I’m at peace anywhere.”


End file.
